Race for Water Odyssey receives official welcome to Jakarta

The Race for Water Odyssey ambassador vessel was officially welcomed today in Jakarta, Indonesia by the national government institutions, partners and the media. It is the first time in the history of the Foundation that the ambassador vessel visits Jakarta.

The boat, which is the world’s catamaran powered by a hybrid renewable energy sources including solar, wind and sea, is going around the world to raise awareness on the impact of plastic waste on the marine environment and propose local solutions to this global problem.

This unique catamaran arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday 19thof June and hosted the official welcome press conference on board attended by Mr Marco Simeoni, The Race for Water Foundation president; Ambassador Kurt Kunz, Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and the ASEAN and the Deputy Minister for Human Resources, Science 6 Technology, Marine Culture Affairs, Dr. Ir. Safri Burhanuddin, DEA.

All speakers at the conference highlighted the importance of collaboration to tackle the complex and growing issue of plastic waste and pollution in Indonesia and globally as a whole and propose to work together over the coming 6 weeks to facilitate workshops and educational visits for school children.

Created in 2010, the Swiss Foundation Race for Water fights to prevent the plastic pollution of the oceans. The mission is to take action on the ground by providing sustainable industrial technological solutions. Through the 2017-2021 Odyssey, the ambassador vessel travels the globe’s seas to review the impact of plastic on the marine environment, to alert as many people as possible to this scourge and to offer solutions to combat it. It is a comprehensive programme rolled out at every stopover to assist the coastal towns and the different islands visited to take action locally against this global problem.

The Race for Water Foundation’s ambassador vessel is unique; propelled solely by renewable energies thanks to its solar panels, its traction kite and its chain of hydrogen production and storage. A working showcase for energy transition whilst underway, the vessel transforms into a fabulous platform to host workshops and local school visits when in harbour.

Setting sail from Lorient, France, on 9 April 2017 for a 5-year circumnavigation of the globe, the Race for Water vessel, now on its 19thstop-over will remain in Jakarta and Indonesia for the next six weeks. The vessel will depart for Borneo, Malaysia on 31stJuly.

QUOTES

Mr Marco Simeoni, The Race for Water Foundation president : “We have been sailing for over two years across the Atlantic and then South Pacific Oceans to finally reach South East Asia and the Indonesian waters, where plastic pollution is a major issue in the region. We will be working over the coming days to bring people together and to look at solutions on a practical level. Our aim is to find local solutions to a worldwide disaster.”

Ambassador Kurt Kunz, Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and the ASEAN “The catamaran on which you stand now is proof that we can use alternative energies. This vessel sails around the world solely powered by the sun, the wind and the water. Its mission is to promote energy transition and stop plastic waste reaching water ways.

The Race for Water team proposes practical ways for dealing with plastic waste, presenting for instance pyrolysis, a technological process to change, in fact upcycle plastic waste into valuable energy.

Switzerland boasts a cutting-edge Cleantech sector and promotes looking into ways to allow a circular economy. We support measures against climate change and for the protection of water and the oceans. We also encourage reducing subsidies to fossil fuels, as they create undesired incentives and make it more difficult for cleaner, renewable energies such as solar, wind or water power to be competitive.

The Race for Water catamaran looks at new innovative ways how to protect the climate and water. Please be inspired!”

Dr. Ir. Safri Burhanuddin, DEA, Deputy Minister for Human Resources, Science 6 Technology, Marine Culture Affairs.“Since 2017, Indonesia has commitment and declare to reduce marine plastic debris as much as 70% by 2025, as well as 30% of solid wastes in general through Reduce-Reuse-Recycle and Circular Economy principles. We have become acutely aware that solving the plastic pollution problem cannot be done by the government alone, we also need support from all parts of society. We now have a strategy.

Race for Water’s mission to provide energy from plastic waste and reduce plastic waste from reaching the ocean. We have to avoid the litter reaching the waterways. The community and the society must all work together. What the Odyssey does is show how we can all work together. The ocean is a world with no national borders.

What Race for Water is doing is offering great renewable energies technology, it is an example of how you have the provision of a better life using natural resources. You make this operational and it is real today. They do not use fuel and do not pollute, and we must go forward and make a collaboration. We have a month with Race for Water in Indonesia, and we will meet in workshops and put forward proposals in meetings with the governments of Switzerland and Indonesia.”